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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..499b0dc --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #60694 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/60694) diff --git a/old/60694-h.zip b/old/60694-h.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 52b0f14..0000000 --- a/old/60694-h.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60694-h/60694-h.htm b/old/60694-h/60694-h.htm deleted file mode 100644 index e76cf51..0000000 --- a/old/60694-h/60694-h.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1035 +0,0 @@ -<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" - "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> -<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> - <head> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=us-ascii" /> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> - <title> - The Project Gutenberg eBook of Virgin Ground, by Rosel George Brown. - </title> - <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> - - <style type="text/css"> - -body { - margin-left: 10%; - margin-right: 10%; -} - - h1,h2 { - text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ - clear: both; -} - -p { - margin-top: .51em; - text-align: justify; - margin-bottom: .49em; -} - -hr { - width: 33%; - margin-top: 2em; - margin-bottom: 2em; - margin-left: 33.5%; - margin-right: 33.5%; - clear: both; -} - -hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} -hr.tb {width: 45%; margin-left: 27.5%; margin-right: 27.5%;} - -.center {text-align: center;} - -.right {text-align: right;} - -.caption {font-weight: bold;} - -/* Images */ -.figcenter { - margin: auto; - text-align: center; -} - -div.titlepage { - text-align: center; - page-break-before: always; - page-break-after: always; -} - -div.titlepage p { - text-align: center; - text-indent: 0em; - font-weight: bold; - line-height: 1.5; - margin-top: 3em; -} - -.ph1 { text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; font-weight: bold; } -.ph1 { font-size: large; margin: .83em auto; } - -.blockquot { - margin-left: 5%; - margin-right: 10%; -} - - - </style> - </head> -<body> - - -<pre> - -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Virgin Ground, by Rosel George Brown - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll -have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using -this ebook. - - - -Title: Virgin Ground - -Author: Rosel George Brown - -Release Date: November 15, 2019 [EBook #60694] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VIRGIN GROUND *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/cover.jpg" width="344" height="500" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="titlepage"> -<h1>VIRGIN GROUND</h1> - -<h2>BY ROSEL GEORGE BROWN</h2> - -<p class="ph1"><i>Annie signed on a bride ship for Mars.<br /> -There were forty brides. And when she<br /> -got there, thirty-nine men were waiting.</i></p> - -<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br /> -Worlds of If Science Fiction, February 1959.<br /> -Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that<br /> -the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>The pilot shoved open the airlock and kicked the stairs down.</p> - -<p>"Okay, girls. Carry your suitcases and I'll give each of you an oxygen -mask as you go out. The air's been breathable for fifteen years, but -it's still thin to newcomers. If you feel dizzy, take a whiff of -oxygen."</p> - -<p>The forty women just stood there and looked at each other. Nobody -wanted to be first.</p> - -<p>Annie moved forward, her bulky suitcase practically floating in her -hand. She was a big woman with that wholesome expression which some -women have to substitute for sex appeal. She'd made a great senior -leader at summer camps.</p> - -<p>"I'll go first," she said, grinning confidence into the others. "I'm -not likely to bring out the beast in them." She waved herself out, -letting the grin set and jell.</p> - -<p>It was odd to feel light. She'd felt too heavy as far back as she could -remember. Not fat heavy. Bone heavy.</p> - -<p>The sweat on her face dried suddenly. She could feel it, like -something being peeled off her skin. Arid climate.</p> - -<p>It was cold. But she had the warmth to meet it.</p> - -<p>There they were! Forty men. There were supposed to be forty. What if -one of them had died! Who would go back?</p> - -<p>"Not me," Annie prayed to herself. "Dear God, not me." She tried to -count them. But they moved around so!</p> - -<p>They were looking at something. Not Annie. The girl coming down the -ramp behind Annie.</p> - -<p>It was Sally, with the blonde hair on her shoulders. That's all they'd -be able to see from there. The blonde hair.</p> - -<p>But a man was coming forward. He had a tam-like hat pulled low to -good-humored eyes, and an easy stride.</p> - -<p>"Wait, Ben," one of the other men said. "See the others."</p> - -<p>"I pulled first, didn't I?"</p> - -<p>"Yeah. But you ain't seen but two yet."</p> - -<p>"I want that blonde one. Let Gary see the others."</p> - -<p>And he led Sally away.</p> - -<p>He didn't feel her muscles or look at her teeth or measure her pelvic -span.</p> - -<p>After Sally came Nora. Nora giggled and waved, making a shape under the -shapeless clothes. Wasn't that just like Nora? Okay. So she was cute.</p> - -<p>Second man took Nora. He didn't wait for the others.</p> - -<p>Third man took Regina. Regina looked scared, but you could see those -big cow eyes a mile off. Regina obviously needed somebody to protect -her.</p> - -<p>The other girls came out. Annie counted and her heart hit bottom. -Someone was going to be left over.</p> - -<p>Four women, three men. They all felt embarrassed. It was the kind of -thing the colonists would talk about for years. Who was last. Who was -second to last. Spiteful people would remember, and in a tight little -community, spite took root and throve on the least misinterpreted -expression or—But then, this wouldn't be a tight little community, -Annie remembered. The lichen farms were spread out over the whole -temperate belt of the world. Because the lichens were grown only on -hills, where the sand would not cover them. And because they did a more -efficient job of oxygenating the atmosphere when they were spread over -a wide area.</p> - -<p>One man, hat in hand, even in the cold. A little shriveled man with a -spike of dust-colored hair, but kind-looking.</p> - -<p>"Aw...." he drawled in embarrassment. He clicked his tongue. "You're -both probably too good for somebody like me. I don't know. Both fine -women."</p> - -<p>The two women stood in silence.</p> - -<p>"What's your name?"</p> - -<p>"Annie."</p> - -<p>"Mary."</p> - -<p>"Mary? My sister's named Mary. Fine woman." He took Mary's hand. "No -disrespect to you, Annie."</p> - -<p>They were all gone.</p> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus.jpg" width="355" height="500" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>"I could take you on my Venus run," the pilot said. He, too, was -embarrassed. "But I'm afraid I'll have a full ship after that. Unless -you can buy the weight and space. I'd be glad to take you free. But the -company...."</p> - -<p>Annie's eyes were full but she wasn't going to let them spill.</p> - -<p>Sally brought Ben by, already looking self-consciously married.</p> - -<p>"I'm sorry, honey," she said. "Look, Annie, if you want to come stay -with us until another shipment of pioneers come to break ground, you're -welcome. Maybe you'd—er—find one of them you liked."</p> - -<p>It was a gesture of kindness, of course, but it made Annie's eyes -spill. She turned her head away, toward the red hills. Red and the -cultivated ones green. Christmas colors.</p> - -<p>"Sure," Ben said. "Swell. Any friend of Sally's is a friend of mine."</p> - -<p>And the way they looked at each other made Annie's heart lurch.</p> - -<p>"Thanks, kids," she said. "But I don't believe I'll try it. And don't -worry. This isn't the first time I've been stood up."</p> - -<p>"Are you coming?" the pilot shouted across the field. "Hate to rush -you, but I've got a schedule to meet."</p> - -<p>Was she coming? What else could she do?</p> - -<p>"What happened to him, Ben?" Annie asked. "My—the other man that -should have been here."</p> - -<p>Ben worried a hole in the sand with one foot and cleared his throat. -"He stayed home."</p> - -<p>"You mean he's <i>alive</i>! Here?"</p> - -<p>"Well ... yes. But he didn't—"</p> - -<p>"Never mind. I don't need anybody to strum a guitar under my window. -If he couldn't get away from the farm today I can certainly go to him. -I've got a pair of legs that'll walk around the world."</p> - -<p>"You coming?" the pilot shouted.</p> - -<p>"No!" Annie cried. "I live here."</p> - -<p>The spaceship took off, a phoenix rising from the flames.</p> - -<p>Ben was shuffling his feet, hands in his pockets. "We'd be proud to -have you stay with us, Annie."</p> - -<p>"Oh, cut it out, Ben. I'm no hot-house rose. Just tell me which way and -I'll find my own farm." She paused, trying to guess his thoughts.</p> - -<p>"You think he might be disappointed when he sees me? Is that it, Ben? I -know I'm no pinup girl. But I'm a worker and a breeder. He'll see it. -In the end, that's what's going to count."</p> - -<p>Ben was still making holes in the sand with his feet, trying to say -something.</p> - -<p>"Please don't worry," Annie went on, "your friend won't be sorry. If he -doesn't want to marry me right away—okay. I can understand it. But I -can give him a chance to watch me work."</p> - -<p>"That isn't it," Ben said finally. "I think you look fine, Annie. -It's—it's <i>any</i> woman. He told them not to send a wife for him. <i>Any</i> -woman."</p> - -<p>"But that's ridiculous. He knows the laws. Five years and then a wife. -Why did he stake out in the first place?"</p> - -<p>"That was before," Ben answered.</p> - -<p>"Before what?"</p> - -<p>"Aw, it's not for me to say. Why don't you just forget Bradman. He's a -good enough guy. But not for you. You come—"</p> - -<p>"Which way and how far?"</p> - -<p>Ben looked at her hard. "Okay. On Mars your life is your own." He -pointed. "Second farmbubble you come to. And you'd better hurry. It -ought to take eight hours and night falls like a ton of bricks here."</p> - -<p>Annie made it in seven. Easy.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>She went up to the transparent hemisphere. He was inside working. She -shouted, but if he heard her he didn't look up.</p> - -<p>She went to the flap that must be the door. There wasn't anything to -knock on, so she opened the flap and walked in.</p> - -<p>There was nothing in the room but a cot, kitchen equipment and lichen, -growing on a number of tables. The air was richer than outside and -Annie breathed it thirstily.</p> - -<p>"I'm Annie Strug," she said, smiling and wishing it wasn't such an ugly -name.</p> - -<p>He glanced up, angry blue eyes under a growth of black hair. He didn't -say a word.</p> - -<p>Annie set her suitcase down and looked out at the green growth on the -hills.</p> - -<p>"Look, Mr. Bradman," she cried suddenly, pointing a spatulate finger to -the western horizon. "What in the name of heaven is that?" There was a -catch of fright in her voice.</p> - -<p>"We don't say 'mister' on Mars," he said reluctantly. "Brady. But you -don't have to call me anything because you're leaving soon." He was a -big, arid man with a sandy voice. But his hands, as he stripped the -lumpy brown fruits from a giant lichen, were surprisingly delicate.</p> - -<p>"What <i>is</i> it?" Annie asked again, turning instinctively to the big man -for a reassurance and protection she had no reason to expect.</p> - -<p>Bradman straightened and moved away from her, looking at the black -giant growing up from the earth in the distance and moving straight -toward them.</p> - -<p>"It's a sandstorm," he said. "It'll be here in ten minutes."</p> - -<p>Annie let out the breath she had been holding. "Oh. That doesn't sound -so bad. I don't know what I thought it was. I was just frightened." She -smiled shyly and apologetically at Bradman.</p> - -<p>Bradman grimaced at her, his agate eyes frozen in a pallid face that -should have gone with red hair. The sand-blown lines in his face were -cruel. "Sister, you've got a smile like a slab of concrete. Don't try -it again."</p> - -<p>"You didn't <i>have</i> to say that," Annie said quietly, closing her eyes -against the winds of her anger.</p> - -<p>"You didn't have to come here," he replied. "Goodbye."</p> - -<p>"I'm not leaving," she said, still holding tight the doors of her anger.</p> - -<p>"<i>I</i> am." He paced heavily over the sand floor and pulled back the flap -of the door.</p> - -<p>"Where are you going?" Annie glanced back at the towering giant, now -glowing red in the sunlight, like some huge, grotesque devil.</p> - -<p>"Into the storm cellar. Nobody lives through a Martian sandstorm."</p> - -<p>Annie ran after him. "For God's sake take me with you! You can't leave -me...."</p> - -<p>"Mine's built for one," he said, and pulled the top in over him as he -disappeared into the hole.</p> - -<p>Annie broke her fingernails pulling at the cover. The wind was blowing -sand in her eyes. She saw blood staining the rim of her index finger. -She pounded with her fists.</p> - -<p>"Let me in!" she screamed. "In the name of God!" But all she heard was -the keening sand in the wind.</p> - -<p>She looked around. The devil was closer, malignant and hungry. It -wanted to eat her alive.</p> - -<p>It made her angry.</p> - -<p>"I'll fight it," she screamed. "By God, I'll fight!"</p> - -<p>Five minutes, she guessed. Maybe five minutes left. She ran into the -house, ripped open her suitcase. Bundles of nylon marriage clothes. She -began to sob. Some were with lace.</p> - -<p>"Fight!" she shouted to herself. There was her oxygen mask. How much -oxygen? Anybody's guess. It was made for maybe a few whiffs a day over -a period of several months.</p> - -<p>Swell. But it wouldn't keep the sand from tearing through her eyeballs -and flaying her alive.</p> - -<p>Wrap in nylon nightgowns? Ridiculous.</p> - -<p>Spacesuit?</p> - -<p>Annie went through the one-room house as fast as she could. No -spacesuit. Why should he have one?</p> - -<p>Three minutes left.</p> - -<p>Sand was blowing under the hemisphere, piling up at one end and oozing -out beneath.</p> - -<p>It was possible she would simply be buried.</p> - -<p>The refrigerator!</p> - -<p>That wasn't a refrigerator. Only a cabinet, loosely joined.</p> - -<p>Annie went outside, on the side where the field of lichens grew up a -smooth, stone hill. The red devil was whistling at her now; a low, -insinuating whistle.</p> - -<p>Something rattled faintly against one steel rib of the hemisphere. It -was a shrub, about five feet tall.</p> - -<p>Annie began to laugh hysterically. Brady had protected the shrub with -loving care. It was tied to the steel rib through grommetted holes in -the hemisphere, and covered with its own plastic bag to shield off the -wind.</p> - -<p>One minute.</p> - -<p>The red devil was shouting now, laughing with triumph. He ran his sandy -fingers through her hair and blew his gritty breath in her eyes.</p> - -<p>She pulled the zipper at the bottom of the polyethylene bag that -covered the shrub and yanked the bag off. It was heavy, almost oily -plastic, slippery and pliant.</p> - -<p>There was no time to decide whether it would be better inside or -outside the house. She pulled the bag over her head inside out, so the -zipper would close completely. Then she folded the zipper part under -once and wedged herself as far as she could go into the space between -shrub and hemisphere, holding the oxygen mask in her teeth.</p> - -<p>With infinite care, though she was not likely to split the heavy bag, -she pulled off her shoes and her heavy, woollen walking socks. She put -the shoes back on. Her slacks covered her legs. Only her ankles were -bare.</p> - -<p>She unraveled one sock and stuffed the yarn in her ears. There was a -sudden, remarkable quiet. Then, even through the yarn came the roar of -the storm. For it was upon her.</p> - -<p>She looked through the milky plastic into a wild, red inferno, spitting -at her in furious frustration. Then she bound the other sock over her -eyes.</p> - -<p>She was in a blind, muffled world now, buffeted against the shrub and -the wires and the steel rib, but not painfully, because of her heavy -clothing. It was as though suddenly all her senses had been switched to -the last pitch before silence.</p> - -<p>"I might live," Annie thought. "I might."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>There was sand in the bag now. Annie could feel it sifting under her -collar and blowing up her ankles. Not much. It was coming from the -bottom of the bag. Probably the end of the zipper had worked open just -a little.</p> - -<p>Was that the dull roar of the storm through her stoppered ears or the -rushing of her own blood? If sand were seeping in, the storm must still -be on.</p> - -<p>How did Bradman breathe in his storm cellar? Would the storm last long -enough for the air to go bad? It would go bad fast, in an enclosed -place on Mars.</p> - -<p>Bradman. What sort of monster would walk off and let another human -being die? Without a glance backwards? Did the cold desert wear the -humanity out of a man? How did a human being get like that?</p> - -<p>"'You've got a smile like a concrete slab.'" Is that what you say to a -person when you know you're about to leave them to die?</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>UNMARRIED WOMEN BETWEEN THE AGES OF 21 AND 30. GOOD HEALTH. WELL -ADJUSTED. MARRIAGE ON ARRIVAL. MARS TRANSPORT LEAVES OCT. 1.</p></div> - -<p>Good health ... well adjusted ... she could see the printed words, red -stereo words reaching out from the page. Unmarried women between ... -they came and went in her mind and there was a roar in her ears. The -words were gone now. Only a redness that came and went. No. A blackness.</p> - -<p>Annie snatched the exhausted oxygen mask off her face and gulped a -pallid, sandy breath of air. It wouldn't do. She took the sock off her -eyes and bound it around her nose and mouth. It would filter some of -the sand out. She opened her eyes briefly and closed them. The grit -stayed in. She didn't dare open them again.</p> - -<p>But the storm looked weaker. Or was it her imagination?</p> - -<p>She groped for the zipper. Foul air would kill her quicker than sand. -She couldn't find it.</p> - -<p>Hell with the zipper! She pulled her little mending kit out of her -pocket and slashed the bag with the scissors.</p> - -<p>The storm sounded louder now, with the bag gone. The sand blew under -her eyelids. Ripped her face. Tore a burning circle around each ankle.</p> - -<p>Annie put her face in her hands, breathing through her nose and the -sock.</p> - -<p>She held herself stiffly. She didn't want to cough.</p> - -<p>The whole world was a blind, gritty pain. There was no end to think of. -Only pain.</p> - -<p>A grayness.</p> - -<p>A blackness.</p> - -<p>Finally, a voice. Bradman.</p> - -<p>"You ruined my shrub. Did you have to slash the bag, too?"</p> - -<p>Annie opened her eyes. They felt red and ruined. They were watering so -much her cheeks were wet. She could hardly see.</p> - -<p>She was having a coughing fit. She dragged herself upright. All she -could see was sand. The plastic bubble had blown off the girders and if -the furnishings and her suitcase were there, her eyes were still too -dim to see them.</p> - -<p>"Do you know what that shrub's worth on Mars?"</p> - -<p>Annie found the yarn had fallen out of one ear and she pulled it out -of the other.</p> - -<p>"Do you know what that <i>bag's</i> worth?"</p> - -<p>Gall ran in her veins. She spat it out of her mouth.</p> - -<p>She backed up to the steel beam and braced her feet against it, light -in the Martian gravity.</p> - -<p>"I told them not to send a woman out here."</p> - -<p>She pushed off and sank her fist into his teeth. He went down.</p> - -<p>She was too light. But he was too light, too. It evened out.</p> - -<p>She turned his face and held it in the sand. Her strength was insane.</p> - -<p>"Do you know what a human life is worth?" she screamed.</p> - -<p>He struggled, but she fought his bucking body, kept his face buried in -the sand until he was dead and a long time after.</p> - -<p>An age passed. Annie was frozen in a world rimed over with white -starlight, sequinned with frost.</p> - -<p>Then the crosseyed moons came up.</p> - -<p>She found an edge of the plastic bubble, rumpled and limp and half -buried in the sand. She pushed off the heaviest hills of sand with her -hands and pulled it out. She climbed up the anchored girders with it, -and then slept the rest of the night in her own home.</p> - -<p>The next day she dug out her household supplies from the sand.</p> - -<p>The day after she cleared the sand from the lichens on her farm.</p> - -<p>On the fourth day she called a few neighbors in and late in the evening -she buried Bradman.</p> - -<p>No one questioned her. It had been, after all, self-defense.</p> - -<p>She kept the farm as well as any man. Better. She worked. How she -worked! She kept herself numb with labor, her mind drunk with the -liquors of fatigue.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>After five years, he came. He just appeared inside the door flap, -looking a little nervous but grinning.</p> - -<p>"I'm Jack Hamstrong," he said, his voice full and wholesome, like Iowa -corn. "I—you weren't at the spaceport so I figured, what the heck. I -just walked."</p> - -<p>"This is <i>my</i> farm," Annie said. "My hands are on every inch of it."</p> - -<p>Hamstrong's ruddy face turned in on itself a little. "I know. I know -the story. I didn't come to take anything away. I came to—good Lord, -didn't you <i>know</i> you'd be sent a husband?"</p> - -<p>Annie's eyes went queer, like a cat's. "A husband?" If they'd told her, -she hadn't heard. "Go away," she said. She looked around at her farm, -the fruits of her travail—alone. The virgin birth.</p> - -<p>"No," he said firmly. "It's yours <i>and</i> mine. Legally. I'm not a mean -man, Annie. You'll find me patient. But stubborn. I can wait."</p> - -<p>Annie sighed. Or was it a shudder? She looked up again at the puckering -edges of the evening sky.</p> - -<p>She put down the knife she had been peeling a giant lichen with. She -wiped her hands on her apron and lifted the door flap.</p> - -<p>"All right, then," she said. "Wait."</p> - -<p>"For what?"</p> - -<p>"The sandstorm," she said.</p> - -<p>And she got into the storm cellar and pulled down the weighty lid, -locking it behind her.</p> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Virgin Ground, by Rosel George Brown - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VIRGIN GROUND *** - -***** This file should be named 60694-h.htm or 60694-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/0/6/9/60694/ - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll -have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using -this ebook. - - - -Title: Virgin Ground - -Author: Rosel George Brown - -Release Date: November 15, 2019 [EBook #60694] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VIRGIN GROUND *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - - - VIRGIN GROUND - - BY ROSEL GEORGE BROWN - - _Annie signed on a bride ship for Mars. - There were forty brides. And when she - got there, thirty-nine men were waiting._ - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Worlds of If Science Fiction, February 1959. - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - -The pilot shoved open the airlock and kicked the stairs down. - -"Okay, girls. Carry your suitcases and I'll give each of you an oxygen -mask as you go out. The air's been breathable for fifteen years, but -it's still thin to newcomers. If you feel dizzy, take a whiff of -oxygen." - -The forty women just stood there and looked at each other. Nobody -wanted to be first. - -Annie moved forward, her bulky suitcase practically floating in her -hand. She was a big woman with that wholesome expression which some -women have to substitute for sex appeal. She'd made a great senior -leader at summer camps. - -"I'll go first," she said, grinning confidence into the others. "I'm -not likely to bring out the beast in them." She waved herself out, -letting the grin set and jell. - -It was odd to feel light. She'd felt too heavy as far back as she could -remember. Not fat heavy. Bone heavy. - -The sweat on her face dried suddenly. She could feel it, like -something being peeled off her skin. Arid climate. - -It was cold. But she had the warmth to meet it. - -There they were! Forty men. There were supposed to be forty. What if -one of them had died! Who would go back? - -"Not me," Annie prayed to herself. "Dear God, not me." She tried to -count them. But they moved around so! - -They were looking at something. Not Annie. The girl coming down the -ramp behind Annie. - -It was Sally, with the blonde hair on her shoulders. That's all they'd -be able to see from there. The blonde hair. - -But a man was coming forward. He had a tam-like hat pulled low to -good-humored eyes, and an easy stride. - -"Wait, Ben," one of the other men said. "See the others." - -"I pulled first, didn't I?" - -"Yeah. But you ain't seen but two yet." - -"I want that blonde one. Let Gary see the others." - -And he led Sally away. - -He didn't feel her muscles or look at her teeth or measure her pelvic -span. - -After Sally came Nora. Nora giggled and waved, making a shape under the -shapeless clothes. Wasn't that just like Nora? Okay. So she was cute. - -Second man took Nora. He didn't wait for the others. - -Third man took Regina. Regina looked scared, but you could see those -big cow eyes a mile off. Regina obviously needed somebody to protect -her. - -The other girls came out. Annie counted and her heart hit bottom. -Someone was going to be left over. - -Four women, three men. They all felt embarrassed. It was the kind of -thing the colonists would talk about for years. Who was last. Who was -second to last. Spiteful people would remember, and in a tight little -community, spite took root and throve on the least misinterpreted -expression or--But then, this wouldn't be a tight little community, -Annie remembered. The lichen farms were spread out over the whole -temperate belt of the world. Because the lichens were grown only on -hills, where the sand would not cover them. And because they did a more -efficient job of oxygenating the atmosphere when they were spread over -a wide area. - -One man, hat in hand, even in the cold. A little shriveled man with a -spike of dust-colored hair, but kind-looking. - -"Aw...." he drawled in embarrassment. He clicked his tongue. "You're -both probably too good for somebody like me. I don't know. Both fine -women." - -The two women stood in silence. - -"What's your name?" - -"Annie." - -"Mary." - -"Mary? My sister's named Mary. Fine woman." He took Mary's hand. "No -disrespect to you, Annie." - -They were all gone. - -"I could take you on my Venus run," the pilot said. He, too, was -embarrassed. "But I'm afraid I'll have a full ship after that. Unless -you can buy the weight and space. I'd be glad to take you free. But the -company...." - -Annie's eyes were full but she wasn't going to let them spill. - -Sally brought Ben by, already looking self-consciously married. - -"I'm sorry, honey," she said. "Look, Annie, if you want to come stay -with us until another shipment of pioneers come to break ground, you're -welcome. Maybe you'd--er--find one of them you liked." - -It was a gesture of kindness, of course, but it made Annie's eyes -spill. She turned her head away, toward the red hills. Red and the -cultivated ones green. Christmas colors. - -"Sure," Ben said. "Swell. Any friend of Sally's is a friend of mine." - -And the way they looked at each other made Annie's heart lurch. - -"Thanks, kids," she said. "But I don't believe I'll try it. And don't -worry. This isn't the first time I've been stood up." - -"Are you coming?" the pilot shouted across the field. "Hate to rush -you, but I've got a schedule to meet." - -Was she coming? What else could she do? - -"What happened to him, Ben?" Annie asked. "My--the other man that -should have been here." - -Ben worried a hole in the sand with one foot and cleared his throat. -"He stayed home." - -"You mean he's _alive_! Here?" - -"Well ... yes. But he didn't--" - -"Never mind. I don't need anybody to strum a guitar under my window. -If he couldn't get away from the farm today I can certainly go to him. -I've got a pair of legs that'll walk around the world." - -"You coming?" the pilot shouted. - -"No!" Annie cried. "I live here." - -The spaceship took off, a phoenix rising from the flames. - -Ben was shuffling his feet, hands in his pockets. "We'd be proud to -have you stay with us, Annie." - -"Oh, cut it out, Ben. I'm no hot-house rose. Just tell me which way and -I'll find my own farm." She paused, trying to guess his thoughts. - -"You think he might be disappointed when he sees me? Is that it, Ben? I -know I'm no pinup girl. But I'm a worker and a breeder. He'll see it. -In the end, that's what's going to count." - -Ben was still making holes in the sand with his feet, trying to say -something. - -"Please don't worry," Annie went on, "your friend won't be sorry. If he -doesn't want to marry me right away--okay. I can understand it. But I -can give him a chance to watch me work." - -"That isn't it," Ben said finally. "I think you look fine, Annie. -It's--it's _any_ woman. He told them not to send a wife for him. _Any_ -woman." - -"But that's ridiculous. He knows the laws. Five years and then a wife. -Why did he stake out in the first place?" - -"That was before," Ben answered. - -"Before what?" - -"Aw, it's not for me to say. Why don't you just forget Bradman. He's a -good enough guy. But not for you. You come--" - -"Which way and how far?" - -Ben looked at her hard. "Okay. On Mars your life is your own." He -pointed. "Second farmbubble you come to. And you'd better hurry. It -ought to take eight hours and night falls like a ton of bricks here." - -Annie made it in seven. Easy. - - * * * * * - -She went up to the transparent hemisphere. He was inside working. She -shouted, but if he heard her he didn't look up. - -She went to the flap that must be the door. There wasn't anything to -knock on, so she opened the flap and walked in. - -There was nothing in the room but a cot, kitchen equipment and lichen, -growing on a number of tables. The air was richer than outside and -Annie breathed it thirstily. - -"I'm Annie Strug," she said, smiling and wishing it wasn't such an ugly -name. - -He glanced up, angry blue eyes under a growth of black hair. He didn't -say a word. - -Annie set her suitcase down and looked out at the green growth on the -hills. - -"Look, Mr. Bradman," she cried suddenly, pointing a spatulate finger to -the western horizon. "What in the name of heaven is that?" There was a -catch of fright in her voice. - -"We don't say 'mister' on Mars," he said reluctantly. "Brady. But you -don't have to call me anything because you're leaving soon." He was a -big, arid man with a sandy voice. But his hands, as he stripped the -lumpy brown fruits from a giant lichen, were surprisingly delicate. - -"What _is_ it?" Annie asked again, turning instinctively to the big man -for a reassurance and protection she had no reason to expect. - -Bradman straightened and moved away from her, looking at the black -giant growing up from the earth in the distance and moving straight -toward them. - -"It's a sandstorm," he said. "It'll be here in ten minutes." - -Annie let out the breath she had been holding. "Oh. That doesn't sound -so bad. I don't know what I thought it was. I was just frightened." She -smiled shyly and apologetically at Bradman. - -Bradman grimaced at her, his agate eyes frozen in a pallid face that -should have gone with red hair. The sand-blown lines in his face were -cruel. "Sister, you've got a smile like a slab of concrete. Don't try -it again." - -"You didn't _have_ to say that," Annie said quietly, closing her eyes -against the winds of her anger. - -"You didn't have to come here," he replied. "Goodbye." - -"I'm not leaving," she said, still holding tight the doors of her anger. - -"_I_ am." He paced heavily over the sand floor and pulled back the flap -of the door. - -"Where are you going?" Annie glanced back at the towering giant, now -glowing red in the sunlight, like some huge, grotesque devil. - -"Into the storm cellar. Nobody lives through a Martian sandstorm." - -Annie ran after him. "For God's sake take me with you! You can't leave -me...." - -"Mine's built for one," he said, and pulled the top in over him as he -disappeared into the hole. - -Annie broke her fingernails pulling at the cover. The wind was blowing -sand in her eyes. She saw blood staining the rim of her index finger. -She pounded with her fists. - -"Let me in!" she screamed. "In the name of God!" But all she heard was -the keening sand in the wind. - -She looked around. The devil was closer, malignant and hungry. It -wanted to eat her alive. - -It made her angry. - -"I'll fight it," she screamed. "By God, I'll fight!" - -Five minutes, she guessed. Maybe five minutes left. She ran into the -house, ripped open her suitcase. Bundles of nylon marriage clothes. She -began to sob. Some were with lace. - -"Fight!" she shouted to herself. There was her oxygen mask. How much -oxygen? Anybody's guess. It was made for maybe a few whiffs a day over -a period of several months. - -Swell. But it wouldn't keep the sand from tearing through her eyeballs -and flaying her alive. - -Wrap in nylon nightgowns? Ridiculous. - -Spacesuit? - -Annie went through the one-room house as fast as she could. No -spacesuit. Why should he have one? - -Three minutes left. - -Sand was blowing under the hemisphere, piling up at one end and oozing -out beneath. - -It was possible she would simply be buried. - -The refrigerator! - -That wasn't a refrigerator. Only a cabinet, loosely joined. - -Annie went outside, on the side where the field of lichens grew up a -smooth, stone hill. The red devil was whistling at her now; a low, -insinuating whistle. - -Something rattled faintly against one steel rib of the hemisphere. It -was a shrub, about five feet tall. - -Annie began to laugh hysterically. Brady had protected the shrub with -loving care. It was tied to the steel rib through grommetted holes in -the hemisphere, and covered with its own plastic bag to shield off the -wind. - -One minute. - -The red devil was shouting now, laughing with triumph. He ran his sandy -fingers through her hair and blew his gritty breath in her eyes. - -She pulled the zipper at the bottom of the polyethylene bag that -covered the shrub and yanked the bag off. It was heavy, almost oily -plastic, slippery and pliant. - -There was no time to decide whether it would be better inside or -outside the house. She pulled the bag over her head inside out, so the -zipper would close completely. Then she folded the zipper part under -once and wedged herself as far as she could go into the space between -shrub and hemisphere, holding the oxygen mask in her teeth. - -With infinite care, though she was not likely to split the heavy bag, -she pulled off her shoes and her heavy, woollen walking socks. She put -the shoes back on. Her slacks covered her legs. Only her ankles were -bare. - -She unraveled one sock and stuffed the yarn in her ears. There was a -sudden, remarkable quiet. Then, even through the yarn came the roar of -the storm. For it was upon her. - -She looked through the milky plastic into a wild, red inferno, spitting -at her in furious frustration. Then she bound the other sock over her -eyes. - -She was in a blind, muffled world now, buffeted against the shrub and -the wires and the steel rib, but not painfully, because of her heavy -clothing. It was as though suddenly all her senses had been switched to -the last pitch before silence. - -"I might live," Annie thought. "I might." - - * * * * * - -There was sand in the bag now. Annie could feel it sifting under her -collar and blowing up her ankles. Not much. It was coming from the -bottom of the bag. Probably the end of the zipper had worked open just -a little. - -Was that the dull roar of the storm through her stoppered ears or the -rushing of her own blood? If sand were seeping in, the storm must still -be on. - -How did Bradman breathe in his storm cellar? Would the storm last long -enough for the air to go bad? It would go bad fast, in an enclosed -place on Mars. - -Bradman. What sort of monster would walk off and let another human -being die? Without a glance backwards? Did the cold desert wear the -humanity out of a man? How did a human being get like that? - -"'You've got a smile like a concrete slab.'" Is that what you say to a -person when you know you're about to leave them to die? - - UNMARRIED WOMEN BETWEEN THE AGES OF 21 AND 30. GOOD HEALTH. WELL - ADJUSTED. MARRIAGE ON ARRIVAL. MARS TRANSPORT LEAVES OCT. 1. - -Good health ... well adjusted ... she could see the printed words, red -stereo words reaching out from the page. Unmarried women between ... -they came and went in her mind and there was a roar in her ears. The -words were gone now. Only a redness that came and went. No. A blackness. - -Annie snatched the exhausted oxygen mask off her face and gulped a -pallid, sandy breath of air. It wouldn't do. She took the sock off her -eyes and bound it around her nose and mouth. It would filter some of -the sand out. She opened her eyes briefly and closed them. The grit -stayed in. She didn't dare open them again. - -But the storm looked weaker. Or was it her imagination? - -She groped for the zipper. Foul air would kill her quicker than sand. -She couldn't find it. - -Hell with the zipper! She pulled her little mending kit out of her -pocket and slashed the bag with the scissors. - -The storm sounded louder now, with the bag gone. The sand blew under -her eyelids. Ripped her face. Tore a burning circle around each ankle. - -Annie put her face in her hands, breathing through her nose and the -sock. - -She held herself stiffly. She didn't want to cough. - -The whole world was a blind, gritty pain. There was no end to think of. -Only pain. - -A grayness. - -A blackness. - -Finally, a voice. Bradman. - -"You ruined my shrub. Did you have to slash the bag, too?" - -Annie opened her eyes. They felt red and ruined. They were watering so -much her cheeks were wet. She could hardly see. - -She was having a coughing fit. She dragged herself upright. All she -could see was sand. The plastic bubble had blown off the girders and if -the furnishings and her suitcase were there, her eyes were still too -dim to see them. - -"Do you know what that shrub's worth on Mars?" - -Annie found the yarn had fallen out of one ear and she pulled it out -of the other. - -"Do you know what that _bag's_ worth?" - -Gall ran in her veins. She spat it out of her mouth. - -She backed up to the steel beam and braced her feet against it, light -in the Martian gravity. - -"I told them not to send a woman out here." - -She pushed off and sank her fist into his teeth. He went down. - -She was too light. But he was too light, too. It evened out. - -She turned his face and held it in the sand. Her strength was insane. - -"Do you know what a human life is worth?" she screamed. - -He struggled, but she fought his bucking body, kept his face buried in -the sand until he was dead and a long time after. - -An age passed. Annie was frozen in a world rimed over with white -starlight, sequinned with frost. - -Then the crosseyed moons came up. - -She found an edge of the plastic bubble, rumpled and limp and half -buried in the sand. She pushed off the heaviest hills of sand with her -hands and pulled it out. She climbed up the anchored girders with it, -and then slept the rest of the night in her own home. - -The next day she dug out her household supplies from the sand. - -The day after she cleared the sand from the lichens on her farm. - -On the fourth day she called a few neighbors in and late in the evening -she buried Bradman. - -No one questioned her. It had been, after all, self-defense. - -She kept the farm as well as any man. Better. She worked. How she -worked! She kept herself numb with labor, her mind drunk with the -liquors of fatigue. - - * * * * * - -After five years, he came. He just appeared inside the door flap, -looking a little nervous but grinning. - -"I'm Jack Hamstrong," he said, his voice full and wholesome, like Iowa -corn. "I--you weren't at the spaceport so I figured, what the heck. I -just walked." - -"This is _my_ farm," Annie said. "My hands are on every inch of it." - -Hamstrong's ruddy face turned in on itself a little. "I know. I know -the story. I didn't come to take anything away. I came to--good Lord, -didn't you _know_ you'd be sent a husband?" - -Annie's eyes went queer, like a cat's. "A husband?" If they'd told her, -she hadn't heard. "Go away," she said. She looked around at her farm, -the fruits of her travail--alone. The virgin birth. - -"No," he said firmly. "It's yours _and_ mine. Legally. I'm not a mean -man, Annie. You'll find me patient. But stubborn. I can wait." - -Annie sighed. Or was it a shudder? She looked up again at the puckering -edges of the evening sky. - -She put down the knife she had been peeling a giant lichen with. She -wiped her hands on her apron and lifted the door flap. - -"All right, then," she said. "Wait." - -"For what?" - -"The sandstorm," she said. - -And she got into the storm cellar and pulled down the weighty lid, -locking it behind her. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Virgin Ground, by Rosel George Brown - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VIRGIN GROUND *** - -***** This file should be named 60694.txt or 60694.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/0/6/9/60694/ - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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